Luigi's Mansion (GameCube) review

"First of all the creator of this game had to have something intoxicating in his body when he thought up this idea for a game. I mean, your run around and vaccume ghosts, how fun can it be? But in truth it is pretty fun to go through and solve the puzzles. Who ever said drugs were bad? But to the point, this game was one of the first ever games to cross onto the Gamecube, and it was the game many gamers purchased with their gamecube. Everyone wanted the next Super Mario 64, and suspected somethin..."

First of all the creator of this game had to have something intoxicating in his body when he thought up this idea for a game. I mean, your run around and vaccume ghosts, how fun can it be? But in truth it is pretty fun to go through and solve the puzzles. Who ever said drugs were bad? But to the point, this game was one of the first ever games to cross onto the Gamecube, and it was the game many gamers purchased with their gamecube. Everyone wanted the next Super Mario 64, and suspected something great and memorable. Luigi's Mansion came up very short of those expectations, and only truly stood strong in the graphics department. That does not mean that it was a horrible game, it just wasn't anything miraculous.

STORY (7/10): Luigi has won a mansion. Mario decided to go there first and set things up. Mario has been captured by something evil within that castle. In essence that is the story, but the mystery unfolds to who has captured Mario, and who is creating all the ghosts. With Professor E. Gadd helping you out, this is one of the better Mario stories. It has a chain of badguys, and the ghosts are all fairly themed within the story. It's nothing that could be made into a movie, but it does give the game a certain feel.

GRAPHICS (19/20): This game was created to show off the graphical power of the Gamecube, and it definitely does that. The ghosts are beautiful, and the dust on the wall as the light hits it is stupendous... All this shows, and to this day it is still one of the best looking games I have seen. Luigi looks more realistic than ever before, as do the partially transparent ghosts. And what ever happened to loading times in this game. There are none!! Of course this is definitely the best part of Luigi's Mansion.

SOUND (9/10): This game was also used to show off the audio capibility. With Luigi's Mario wails, and the nice spooky music does this game well. It is fairly varied room to room, and yet the feel is always the same, like it truly should be. Also The footsteps of Luigi are are soft and kinda edgy, as are the noises of fear that Luigi makes, giving you almost a feeling that you are making those noises yourself, and that you are feeling what Luigi is feeling.

GAMEPLAY (22/45): The point of this game is to capture all the portrait ghosts, by solving simple puzzles to find their heart. Alot of these are really easy, specially ones near the end. These picture ghosts are the bosses in Luigi's mansion, and catching them is not as simple as you might think. However, as far as bosses go, once you figure out their weakness, you will be able to fairly quickly take care of them.

Along the way to reach the picture ghosts, however, are regular ghosts you need to vaccume up, and Boo's needed to be vaccumed up for the huge jewel. This little vaccuming job of regular ghosts gets very repitive and boring after awhile. These guys put up a struggle, but if you keep your vaccum on them, and lean back on the control stick you will inevitable suck them in. It's the same tactics for many types of ghosts, therefore it definitely gets to become a hassle. This game was not created for longtime use obviously, but for awhile it is fun, and near the end you will just push on so you can totally finish it.

The controls are good and responsive, as they truly will need to be, to control both Luigi, and the vaccume at the same time. The ''C'' stick is used to control the vaccum, while the control pad moved Luigi place to place. The ''X'' button brings up menu's, and the other various buttons, give you various powers for your vaccume system. All these parts at times will be needed to be used in unison to destroy the ghosts within the mansion, and using them in unison is simple and easy to fully control.

REPLAYABILITY (2/10): Biggest problem in Luigi's Mansion. There is nothing to do once you've beat it the first time. I mean, supposebly there is another mansion to undue, but it is basically exactly the same as the first. You can also go for an ''A'' rating, but I am pretty happy with the ''B'' I recieved. After you beat the awfully short mansion, this game loses its value, however some of you will keep it (like myself) just because of the name on it, and the fact that it's, in many ways, a ''classic''

DIFFICULTY (5/5): I love the difficulty of this game, for it is definitely tricky at points, but it is still beatable. The puzzles may force you to truly think your way through, but the puzzles all make sense and are reasonable. Plus there is finally a modern game with a final boss that is not impossible. I am fond of the level of difficulty throughout.

OVERALL (64/100): As a game to show off the systems power, it is perfect. However for a game for entertainment for a long while, Luigi's Mansion comes up short. I no longer play the game, and I only keep it because of face value. I mean it is a Luigi game. I was dissapointed in this game, for I thought it could be a rediculous game that comes out to be a classic. However for a launch title, I much would have rather had a game like Mario 64!

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